The purpose of the present study is to examine the relationship between childhood sexual abuse (CSA) and childhood physical abuse (CPA) and the psychological adjustment in adulthood: eating symptomatology, body dissatisfaction, general psychopathology, self-esteem and personality. The sample consists of 796 young adult women between 18,05 and 30,98 years of age (M = 22. 37 years; SD = 3. 32) and is divided into three groups according to the diagnostical condition: a) university students of a community group from different faculties of the Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona (n = 539; M = 21. 67; SD = 2. 58), b) clinical group of inpatients, outpatients and patients under day hospital conditions with eating disorders (ED) (n = 196; M = 24. 02 years, SD = 4. 20), and c) clinical group of general psychiatric outpatients without ED (n = 61; M = 23. 28 years and SD = 3. 87 years) from different psychological and psychiatric private centers. After having obtained informed consent from the participants, the following instruments were provided: Eating Disorders Examination-Questionnaire (EDE-Q; Fairburn & Beglin, 1994); Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES); Beck Depression Inventory (BDI; Beck, Ward, Mendelsohn, Mock & Erbaugh, 1961); Body Shape Questionnaire (BSQ; Cooper, Taylor, Cooper & Fairburn, 1987); Traumatic Life Events Questionnaire (TLEQ; Kubany & Haynes, 2001); Eating Disorders Inventory - 2 (EDI-2; Garner 1991); and State Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI; Spielberger, Gorsuch & Lushene, 1970). The presence of childhood abuse observed in both clinical groups is similar (with an average of 40. 6% of CSA and 17. 8% of CPA), although significantly higher than the one found in the community group (15. 9% of CSA and 3. 3% of CPA). In the group of patients having ED and in the university students group, CSA presents a statistically significant relationship with eating disorder psychopathology, as well as with body dissatisfaction. 72. 7% of the sexually abused patients having ED carry out purging compensatory behaviors. In general, sexually victimized participants from each diagnostical condition report significantly higher levels of general psychopathology and suicidal ideation, as well as a higher imbalance in certain personality traits. Statistically significant interaction effects have been observed between CSA and the diagnostical condition with regard to self-esteem, maturity fear and impulsivity. The abused young women from the community group and the clinical group without ED present significantly worse self-esteem than those who were not abused, while no such differences were observed in patients with ED. Abused psychiatric patients without ED show significantly lower maturity fear, while the opposite is true for abused university students; and in the group with ED the effect of CPA is not significant. There is a higher impulsivity among the women abused in the community group and the clinical group with ED, but in the psychiatric group of patients without ED the effect of CSA is not significant. With respect to CPA, even if it only shows an association with the depressive symptomatology in the community group, the battered young women, in general, report higher suicidal ideation than their peers who were not abused. In patients with ED, CPA presents a significant association with certain aspects of eating disorder psychopathology, as well as with perfectionism and interoceptive awareness of the university students, and with maturity fear in psychiatric patients without ED, though in the opposite direction than expected. In conclusion, according to the specialized literature, childhood abuse, especially of a sexual nature, can contribute to a worse psychological adjustment in adulthood, both on university students and on psychiatric patients with and without eating disorders.